


Unfettered

by Mareel



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Federation, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Post-Season 4
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-03
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 17:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2396330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/pseuds/Mareel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's become the man he never would have been had he married me.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unfettered

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place the evening following the foundation of the United Federation of Planets, where Archer gave the keynote address. Margaret Mullen is a woman from his past who declined his marriage proposal when he was twenty-four years old and just out of flight school (as mentioned in the episode "Twilight"). it is her voice. 
> 
> Written for the prompts 'Captain & Ship' and Secondary character POV

 

__________________________________________________

 

Jonathan Archer looks better than ever. 

It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-five years since we last spoke. The years haven’t left him untouched, but they have been kind. He’s still an incredibly attractive man, with a smile that could serve as a lethal weapon should he choose to use it to charm an enemy.

Hearing him speak to the Federation delegates – I watched the live broadcast and replayed it again before tonight’s reception – I was struck by how much of the young explorer I once thought I loved still shines though in his words. Tempered by harsh experience – I have no idea what he and his crew went through to save Earth from the Xindi – he is still the eager optimist looking for new places to discover, new races to befriend. 

I know I was right not to accept his proposal. He is completely wedded to his ship, to his career. I wasn’t willing to share, and truth be told, I don’t think he was either. There was a certain dutifulness in our relationship, as if having a wife and family were expected of him and he wasn’t going to go against expectations at that point in his life. Since then… well I’ve heard otherwise. 

It was very evident tonight that the rumors I’d heard about him were true, though perhaps they were understated. He’d kept it very quiet for years, people said, his interest in one of his officers. The Jon Archer I knew would never have given any cause for such rumor mongering, as by the book as he was then.

Something happened to him at some point to make him the trailblazer and leader he is today. His name is already being mentioned for Federation President sometime in the not too distant future. His ship will be decommissioned soon – I don’t know whether he’ll get another or if Starfleet will finally pin him down in the Admiralty, too important to risk. I think he’ll fight that. And secretly I hope he wins. Some birds can’t be caged.

But whatever changed him, the man I spoke with tonight was very much at ease with himself and with his life’s choices. One of those choices wasn’t necessarily obvious to everyone, but I knew this man once. Intimately. And _never_ – not even when he kissed me and proposed marriage in the moonlight – did he ever look at me the way he looked at the man by his side. It was evident that they were together, and had been so for a long time. The light in his eyes when he turned to his Tactical Officer to introduce us spoke of a love that would never dim with time.

I have no regrets about the choice I made all those years ago. I’ve had my mostly happy marriage and a good life with a man who is now a director of public relations at Starfleet. But I don’t think my husband has ever looked at me _that_ way either. 

I’ve never met Malcolm Reed before. But I wish him joy. He found a wonderful man.

__________________________________________________

 


End file.
